Multi-state midtier cache

ABSTRACT

A server includes a data cache for storing data objects requested by mobile devices, desktop devices, and server devices, each of which may execute a different configuration of an application. When a cache miss occurs, the cache may begin loading portions of a requested data object from various data sources. Instead of waiting for the entire object to load to change the object state to “valid,” the cache may incrementally update the state through various levels of validity based on the calling application configurations. When a portion of the data object used by a mobile configuration is received, the object state can be upgraded to be valid for mobile devices while data for desktop and other devices continues to load, etc. The mobile portion of the data object can then be sent to the mobile devices without waiting for the rest of the data object to load.

BACKGROUND

A middle-tier cache may be used to improve the scalability andperformance of applications that access data stored in databases bycaching frequently used data on a middle-tier system. This type ofserver allows applications to process many requests that would otherwiseexceed their capacity for response. When read-only requests arereceived, the cache can respond using objects from the cache rather thanexecuting additional queries on the database. This both reduces thebandwidth required for database requests and reduces the load on thedatabase server.

In a traditional multi-tier operating environment running webapplications, client devices may include mobile devices, desktopdevices, other server devices, and so forth. These client devices maydisplay information, such as HTML or XML sent by to an applicationrunning on the client device. Although different versions of anapplication may run on different types of client devices, the requestsmade to the server cache for various data objects are the same.

SUMMARY

A server may include a data cache for storing data objects requested bymobile devices, desktop devices, server devices, etc., each of which mayexecute a different configuration of an application. When a cache missoccurs, the cache may begin loading portions of a requested data objectfrom various data sources. Instead of waiting for the entire object toload to change the object state to “valid,” the cache may incrementallyupdate the state through various levels of validity based on the callingapplication configuration. When a portion of the data object used by amobile configuration is received, the object state can be upgraded to bevalid for mobile devices while data for desktop and other devicescontinues to load, etc. The mobile portion of the data object can thenbe sent to the mobile devices without waiting for the rest of the dataobject to load.

When the server receives a request for a data object from anapplication, the server can determine the configuration of theapplication making the request, whether it be mobile (e.g., smartphones, etc.), desktop (e.g., web browsers, desktop computers, etc.),server (e.g., data analytics, machine learning, statistical analysis,etc.), or any other available configuration. If the data object does notexist in the cache, then a request may be made to retrieve the dataobject from one or more data sources. For large data objects, multiplesources may be queried to provide different portions of the data objectto be loaded into the cache. Each of these sources may have varyinglevels of latency when servicing the request, and thus the data objectmay be received and loaded into the cache incrementally.

After a portion of the data object is received from the data sources andstored in the cache, the server can determine whether enough of the dataobject has been received to upgrade the validity state of the object.Instead of using the traditional states of “invalid” and “valid,” thecache may use incremental levels of validity that correspond to thedifferent configurations of the application. Data objects can besubdivided into object portions that correspond to what is needed by thedifferent application configurations. For example, mobile applicationsmay only need to display a small portion of the data available in alarge data object, while server applications may require all of the datain the data object to perform analytics and machine learning processes.A “mobile” portion of the data object may include data that can beloaded very quickly into the cache, while a “server” portion of a dataobject may include data that may require more extensive processingand/or requests to external systems before it can be loaded into thecache. When all of the “mobile” portion of the data object is received,it can be sent to the requesting application without waiting for therest of the data object to load. As additional portions of the dataobject are received, the validity state can be upgraded incrementally,and the data can be sent to corresponding application configurations assoon as it is ready. These validity states may be organized as ahierarchy such that validity in a higher state (e.g., valid:desktop)implies validity in a lower state (e.g., valid:mobile).

The server may be implemented using a middle-tier server, such as anapplication server or a web server that acts as an intermediary betweenrequesting client devices and backend data sources. In someimplementations, the data cache on the server may be partitioned intodifferent logical partitions based on application configurations. Thus,the cache partitions may match the applications and the differentportions of the data objects. For example, mobile portions of a dataobject may be stored in a mobile partition of the cache. As the requesttraffic from various configurations of the application varies over time,the size of the various cache partitions can be dynamically resized tomatch the request traffic. For example, the mobile partition of thecache may be increased to reduce cache misses if the request traffic isprimarily received from mobile devices. Portions of a data object in onepartition may be overwritten while maintaining portions in anotherpartition. This allows different portions of the data object to bedeleted/preserved independent of other portions. When subsequentrequests are received, the cache may determine if the correspondingportion of the data object is in the cache, and then only load themissing portions as necessary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of variousembodiments may be realized by reference to the remaining portions ofthe specification and the drawings, wherein like reference numerals areused throughout the several drawings to refer to similar components. Insome instances, a sub-label is associated with a reference numeral todenote one of multiple similar components. When reference is made to areference numeral without specification to an existing sub-label, it isintended to refer to all such multiple similar components.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for a middle-tier server for servicingapplications operating on client devices, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a data object divided into portions corresponding todifferent application configurations, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a data object as data is loadedincrementally into the cache, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3B illustrates a change in validity state for the data object,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3C illustrates the continued updating of the validity state for thedata object as data is received, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates different orchestration flows that may be used topopulate the portions of the data object, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates a cache that is partitioned according toconfigurations of the application, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6A illustrates how the partitions in the cache can be used to storevarious portions of the data object, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6B illustrates how the partitioned cache can fill incrementallywith independent validity states, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6C illustrates further progression through validity states in apartitioned cache, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates how the size of various partitions in the cache maybe determined based on requests from configurations of the application,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates a re-partitioning of the cache to dynamically adjustpartition sizes based on request traffic, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates how objects in the cache may be partiallyoverwritten, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method for using multiple cachevalidity states to service different application configurations,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a distributed systemfor implementing some of the embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates a simplified block diagram of components of a systemenvironment by which services provided by the components of anembodiment system may be offered as cloud services.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary computer system, in which variousembodiments may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein are embodiments for using multiple validity states in amiddle-tier cache to service requests from applications operating indifferent configurations. An application server may communicate withversions of an application operating on different types of clientdevices. These application configurations may include mobileapplications, desktop applications, and/or server applications, such asanalytics and/or machine learning applications. The server may include acache that stores objects that are requested by the applications runningon the client devices. While traditional caches use a two-state systemfor determining validity of an object in a cache (e.g., valid orinvalid), some embodiments may use a plurality of valid states in thecache to determine when the cache data is valid for each differentconfiguration of the application. When a data object is requested by anapplication operating in a particular configuration, the data object maybegin to be retrieved from a data source and stored in the cache at theserver. As data is incrementally received for the data object, thevalidity of the data object may be improved such that it may becomevalid for certain application configurations before the entire dataobject is received. For example, a mobile configuration of theapplication with limited screen size may only use a small portion of theinformation in a requested data object. As soon as a portion of the dataobject needed to service mobile request has been received, the object inthe cache may be assigned a “valid:mobile” validity state indicatingthat the data object is valid, at least for mobile applications. As soona valid state is received for the requesting application'sconfiguration, the data object may be sent to the application inresponse to the request.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for a middle-tier server for servicingapplications operating on client devices, according to some embodiments.The system 100 may include a server 108. The server 108 may be referredto herein as a middle-tier server as it acts as an intermediary betweenclient devices and data sources used by applications operating on theclient devices. In some embodiments, the server 108 may be implementedas an application server or a web server. For example, the server 108 inFIG. 1 may include a web server 112 and/or an application server 114operating on one or more processors. The server 108 may also include acache 118. Maintaining a middle-tier cache may enhance the speed withwhich application requests may be serviced by the server 108. A cacherouter 116 may include a process that receives requests from clientdevices and determines whether a data object responsive to the requestis already available in the cache 118. If the requested data object isin the cache 118 from a previous request, the cache router 116 mayretrieve the data object from the cache 118 and provide the data objectin response to the request. If the requested data object is not in thecache 118, then the cache router 116 may instead send a request to adata source 120 to retrieve the data object to service the request. Asthe data object is retrieved, the cache router 116 may store the dataobject in the cache 118 to service future requests for the same dataobject.

The data source 120 may include a data center, a database, a databasemanagement system (DBMS), a web service, an application programminginterface (API), a file system, a cloud system, and/or any other deviceor process that may store application data. The data source 120 mayinclude a plurality of data sources in different environments. As willbe described in greater detail below, the data source 120 may include anorchestrated environment with many different orchestration flows,processes, databases, processing modules, algorithms, applications, andso forth, that may be used to store, retrieve, process, and/or organizedata into a data object in response to the request. The data source 120may operate on physically separate hardware that is distinct from theclient devices 102, 104, 106 and/or the server 108. For example, thedata source 120 may be located in a separate facility and/or on aseparate server with different processors and/or operating systems. Insome embodiments, the data source 120 may be combined in a cloud systemwith the server 108.

Requests to the server 108 may be received from many different types ofclient devices. These client devices may include computing devices thathave different display requirements, processing capabilities, and/ormemory availability. These different client device types may be groupedinto a number of different classifications based on how an applicationis configured to operate on those client devices. For example, one suchclassification of client devices may be based on a mobile configurationof the application configured to operate on mobile devices. Aclassification of mobile devices 104 may be based on having a relativelysmall screen size, relatively limited processing power, andcommunication with the server 108 through a wireless or cellularnetwork. The mobile devices 104 may use a particular configuration of anapplication. For example, the mobile devices 104 may use an “app”version of the application that may be more limited in the availablefeatures than a full version of the application. The mobileconfiguration of the application may require and/or display less datathan other configurations of the application. Mobile devices 104 mayinclude tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, smart watches, and/or other small, portable computing devices.

Another classification of client devices may include desktop devices102. The desktop devices 102 may be distinguished from other deviceclassifications by operating a desktop configuration of the application.The desktop configuration of the application may use more data and havemore available features than the mobile configuration of theapplication. The desktop configuration may include a standaloneapplication, a browser-based web application, a component of anoperating system, and/or any other software process that may be run on adesktop client device. Desktop devices 102 may include computing systemssuch as desktop computers, workstations, thin clients, laptop computers,terminal computers, set-top boxes, and/or other computing devices withgreater display capabilities and processing power than the mobiledevices 104 described above.

Another classification of client devices may include server devices 106.The server devices 106 may include any server, web service, API, cloudenvironment, container environment, backend service, and/or any othercomputing device that may operate in a server configuration. The serverdevices 106 may be co-located with the server 108 in a same cloudcomputing environment. The server devices 106 may be characterized inthat they operate a server configuration of the application. Forexample, a server configuration may include a machine learning versionof the application, an artificial intelligence version of theapplication, or any other application configuration that analyzes theapplication data and generates analytics based on the application data.

These three classifications of client devices and their correspondingapplication configurations are provided merely by way of example and arenot meant to be limiting. Other classifications of mobile devices may beused in other embodiments. For example, some embodiments may include aclassification of client devices for augmented/virtual reality devices,and may include an application configuration that operates specificallyon the augmented/virtual reality devices. Some embodiments may includean application configuration for smart appliances, such asrefrigerators, televisions, digital home assistants, security systems,and so forth. This classification of devices may use an applicationconfiguration configured to operate on smart appliances. Therefore, themethods and systems described in this disclosure may be applied equallyto any classification of client device and/or application configuration.

Although the different client devices 102, 104, 106 may operatedifferent configurations of the application, each of these differentapplication configurations may request the same data objects from theserver 108. The speed and efficiency with which these applicationconfigurations can operate may depend at least in part on the speed withwhich these requests for data objects can be serviced by the server 108.Maintaining a middle-tier cache is one of the most commonly usedarchitectures to enhance the speed of any application. This isparticularly true in distributed environments, such as the system inFIG. 1. The speed with which objects can be retrieved from the datasource 120 and/or the cache 118 may in large part define the overallspeed, efficiency, and/or user satisfaction with the applicationoperating on the client devices 102, 104, 106.

A technical problem exists in current middle-tier cache systems.Specifically, some data objects loaded from the data source 120 may berelatively large. While each configuration of the application mayinclude requests for the same data source 120, individual fields in thedata object may require processing and/or additional requests such thata final value for those individual fields is not readily available atthe data source 120. This becomes problematic when a mobileconfiguration of the application only displays a small portion of thedata in the data object, while the server configuration of theapplication may require all of the data in the data object. Traditionalcaches 118 may use a binary validity system such that data is marked aseither “valid” or “invalid.” When requesting a large data object, thecache 118 does not mark the data object as valid until it has beenreceived by the cache 118 in its entirety. If the data object requires arelatively long time to populate all of the fields in the data object inthe cache 118, then mobile devices 102 may experience a long latencywhen they only need a small portion of the data object for display.

Some systems have attempted to use separate caches for each applicationconfiguration. For example, a separate cache may be used for a mobileconfiguration of the application that is separate and distinct from acache used for a desktop configuration of the application. These cachesmay be separate in that data is not shared between caches, and thus datamay be duplicated needlessly between the separate caches—data stored andused in the mobile cache is also needed by the desktop cache. This alsoadds additional overhead and routing requirements to the cache router116 to manage separate caches.

The embodiments described herein solve these and other technicalproblems by adding multiple valid states to cache data. A large dataobject may be loaded incrementally into the cache 118 as data isreceived. Data fields in the data object can be subdivided into aplurality of different portions that are characterized according to thedifferent application configurations. As data is received from the datasource 120 and loaded into the cache 118, the cache router 116 candetermine when individual portions of the data object have beenpopulated and update the validity state of the data object. For example,when the portion of the data object corresponding to the mobileconfiguration of the application is populated, the cache router 116 canchange the validity state of the data object from “invalid” to“valid:mobile” indicating that the data object is valid for mobileconfigurations of the application. Thus, the server may send thepartially populated data object to the mobile client devices 104 fordisplay, even though the remaining portions of the data objectcorresponding to desktop devices 102 and/or server devices 106 may nothave been loaded into the cache 118 yet in their entirety. This processis described in greater detail below.

FIG. 2 illustrates a data object divided into portions corresponding todifferent application configurations, according to some embodiments. Thedata object 200 may be comprised of a plurality of individual datafields 205, 207, 209. The data object 200 may also include an identifier202, such as an object ID that uniquely identifies the data object inrelation to other data objects requested by the client devices. When thedata object 200 is requested from a data source by the middle-tierserver (e.g., a cache miss), different fields within the data object 200may be retrieved using different orchestration flows by the server. Eachof these orchestration flows may be associated with a different latency,such that some fields in the data object 200 may be loaded into thecache before others. Thus, data may be loaded into the object 200 in thecache incrementally as it is received. In general, low-latency data maybe received before higher-latency data.

Some embodiments may divide the fields in the data object 200 intoportions or groupings based on their associated retrieval latency fromthe data source. In the example of FIG. 2, fields 205 may be associatedwith one orchestration flow having a relatively low latency. Thesefields 205 may be divided into a first portion 204 of the data object200 based on this low latency. Similarly, fields 207 may be grouped intoa second portion 206 associated with a medium level of latency, andfields 209 may be grouped into a third portion 208 having a relativelyhigh level of latency.

alternatively or additionally, the portions 204, 206, 208 of the dataobject 200 may be based on different application configurations. Forexample, the first portion 204 may include fields 205 that areassociated with a mobile configuration of the application. The fields205 may be displayed on the relatively small display size of a mobiledevice, and these fields 205 may be all that is required by the mobiledevice when requesting the data objects 200. As described below, whenthe fields 205 in the portion 204 of the data object 200 associated withmobile data are received by the cache 118, the data object 200 may bedesignated as “valid:mobile” and the data object 200 may be sent to themobile configuration of the application. Similarly, the second portion206 may include fields 207 that are associated with a desktopconfiguration of the application. The fields 207 may be used for displayin a browser window or in a standalone application on a desktopcomputing device. The fields 207 may be used by the desktopconfiguration in addition to the fields 205 that are also used in themobile configuration. The third portion 208 may include fields 209 thatare used by a server configuration of the application. Data in thefields 209 may be used by an analytics process, a machine learningprocess, an artificial intelligence process, and/or the like, operatingin a more powerful server environment.

The latency associated with each of the fields 205, 207, 209 may beaffected by many factors. As described in greater detail below, each ofthese portions may be associated with different orchestration flows ordifferent methods for retrieving the data. For example, the fields 205considered to be low-latency fields may be simply retrieved from adatabase or other readily available data source. The fields 207associated with a medium level of latency may be retrieved fromless-available data sources and/or may require data transformations,manipulations, formatting, calculations, and/or other data processingbefore they are ready to be loaded into the data object 200 in thecache. The fields 209 associated with a relatively high level of latencymay require queries to external systems that have longer response times,along with further applications that may need to be executed to processthe data before it is ready.

By way of example, the data objects 200 may include a customer object.The identifier 202 may be a unique identifier for the customer. Thelow-latency fields 205 may include information that is readily availablein a database, such as a first name, a last name, a phone number, anaddress, and so forth. The medium-level latency fields 207 may includeinformation that requires queries to other systems, such as a an orderhistory, a shopping cart, a browsing history, and so forth. Thehigh-level latency fields 209 may include information that is retrievedfrom external systems or requires extensive processing, and is thus notreadily available. This may include delivery times, order trackinghistories, lead-generation status, interaction histories, and so forth.Note that the use of a customer object is merely exemplary and is meantonly to illustrate the types of data that may be part of a data objectrequiring various levels of latency when retrieved from the datasource(s) described above. Any type of data may be stored in the dataobject 200.

The data object 200 in FIG. 2 has been partitioned into three differentportions associated with low, medium, and high levels of latency.However, this example is not meant to be limiting, and other embodimentsmay use any number of partitions to generate portions of the data object200. Some embodiments may use a plurality of portions having two, four,five, six, seven, etc., portions associated with various levels oflatency. Additionally, some embodiments may use a plurality of portionsin the data object 200 based on any number of applicationconfigurations. For example, some embodiments may use portions in thedata objects 200 corresponding to mobile configurations, tabletconfigurations, browser configurations, standalone applicationconfigurations, testing configurations, deployment configurations, andso forth. The use of only three configurations of the application andthis disclosure is provided merely by way of example and is not meant tobe limiting.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a data object 200 as data is loadedincrementally into the cache 118, according to some embodiments. In thisexample, a request may have been made from a configuration of theapplication to the server for the particular data object 200. In somecases, the application may expressly request this particular data object(e.g., requested by name, ID, address, etc.). In other cases, a requestmay have been made for which the data object 200 is responsive to therequest (e.g., a search for objects meeting one or more criteria). Inresponse to the request, the server may begin loading fields for thedata object 200 into the cache 118 as they are received. For example, arequest may be made to different orchestration flows or data sources tobegin retrieving information to populate the fields of the data object200. As data is received for these fields, they can be added to thecache incrementally.

In some embodiments, the cache 118 may be represented as aleast-recently-used (LRU) cache where the oldest objects in the cache118 are overwritten first when the cache 118 reaches its capacity.Additionally, the cache 118 may be implemented with many different typesof data structures. For example, the cache 118 may be implemented usinga linked list data structure. As new portions of the data object 200 arereceived from the data sources, they may be added as new blocks in thelinked list. Each block relating to the data object 200 may bereferenced using the object identifier 202 to indicate that the newblock is part of the existing data object 200 already in the cache 118.Other implementations may use a key-value store to implement the cache118, along with other known cache data structures.

A block in the cache 118 storing the data object 200 may include a fieldfor the identifier 202 along with a field indicating the validity state302 of the data object 200. Prior to this disclosure, an object in acache used a set of validity states where an object was either valid orinvalid. Generally, if all of the fields in a data object had not yetbeen received by the cache, the data object would be labeled as invaliduntil all data fields were populated.

In the embodiments described herein, the validity states 302 of the dataobject 200 may include a plurality of different validity states that gobeyond the existing valid/invalid states. As described above, the dataobject 200 may have fields that are divided into portions 204, 206, 208that correspond to various configurations of the application and/or therelative latency of the data therein. As the data fields in each ofthese portions 204, 206, 208 are populated, the validity state 302 maybe updated to reflect the current state of these portions of the dataobject 200.

For example, as the cache 118 begins to receive data for the data object200, a determination can be made for a validity state for each portionof the data object 200 stored in the cache 118. Generally, thelow-latency data may be received first. Therefore, in this example, datapopulating field 205 a in the mobile portion 204 of the data object 200has been received, and data populating field 205 b is currently beingreceived and processed. However, field 205 c in the mobile portion 204has yet to receive data, and thus the system may determine that the dataobject 200 is still invalid for mobile configurations of theapplication. Similarly, since data has not yet been received for thedesktop portion 206 or the server portion 208, the validity state 302 ofthe data object will also be invalid for desktop and serverconfigurations of the application. This determination may be madeperiodically as data is received by the cache 118.

FIG. 3B illustrates a change in validity state for the data object 200,according to some embodiments. Continuing from the example in FIG. 3A,the final field 205 c in the mobile portion 204 of the data object 200has been populated, thus completing the fields in the low-latencyportion of the data object 200. At this stage, a determination can bemade by the cache 118 that mobile configurations of the application mayuse the data object 200. The validity state 302 can be changed frominvalid to “valid:mobile.” This designation may indicate that the dataobject 200 is available for mobile applications of the configuration,but not yet for desktop and/or server configurations of the application.

When the validity state 302 changes to valid:mobile, the cache 118 mayprovide the data object 200 to mobile configurations of the application.Instead of waiting for all of the fields in the data object 200 to bepopulated, the data object 200 may be provided immediately as the mobileportion 204 of the data object 200 is received. Because mobileconfigurations of the application have smaller screen sizes and reducedprocessing capabilities, mobile configurations of the application neednot require all of the data provided by the data object 200. Forexample, a mobile version of an application operating on a smart phonemay only display and/or process a small portion of the data in arelatively large data object 200. As described above, the data requiredby the mobile configuration of the application may be designated in thedata object 200 as part of the mobile portion 204 of the data object200. This greatly increases the speed with which the server can respondto requests from various configurations of the application. Instead ofwaiting for the entire data object 200 to load into the cache 118 witheach request, the server may instead provide the data object 200 as itis received for each application configuration.

In some embodiments, if a mobile version of the application is the onlyconfiguration of the application currently requesting the data object200, the server may cause the cache 118 to stop populating the dataobject 200 after the mobile portion 204 is populated. If the remainingportions 206, 208 of the data object 200 are not currently needed, thecache 118 may preserve bandwidth and/or cache capacity and stop loadingdata from the data source(s) for the remainder of the data object 200.In other embodiments, the cache 118 may continue to load the fields andthe remaining portions 206, 208 of the data object until they arecomplete.

Note that the data in the various portions 204, 206, 208 of the dataobject 200 need not be populated sequentially. Instead, they may bepopulated as they are received from the various data sources. In thisexample, the fields 205 in the mobile portion 204 have been completed.At the same time, the fields 207 in the desktop portion 206 are in theprocess of being completed, and data is beginning to be received forfield 209 a in the server portion 208.

FIG. 3C illustrates the continued updating of the validity state 302 forthe data object 200 as data is received, according to some embodiments.At this stage in the example, all of the fields 207 in the desktopportion 206 of the data object 200 have been populated. By examiningthese fields and determining that they are complete, the server may makea determination that the validity state 302 of the data object 200 maybe upgraded to “valid:desktop” indicating that the data object 200 isnow ready for use by desktop configurations of the application.

In some embodiments, the values for the validity state 302 may beorganized as a hierarchy of validity states. A higher validity state mayimply validity in each of the lower validity states. In this example,when the data object 200 has a validity state of valid:desktop, this mayimply that the data object 200 is also valid for mobile configurationsof the application. An assumption may be made that all of the fields 205in the mobile portion 204 have been received if all the fields 207 inthe desktop portion 206 have been received. Alternatively, someembodiments may only allow the validity state 302 to upgrade into thevalid:desktop state if the mobile portion 204 has also been completed.For example, if the desktop portion 206 completed before the mobileportion 204, the validity state 302 may transition directly from theinvalid state to the valid:desktop state when the mobile portion 204completes. In many cases, the fields 205 in the mobile portion 204 mayalso be used by desktop configurations of the application.

Because desktop computing devices may have larger display screens andmore processing power, they may use data from the mobile portion 204along with data from the desktop portion 206. Similarly, the serverconfigurations of the application may use all of the data in the dataobject 200. Therefore, the validity state 302 would be upgraded to thevalid:server state when all of the portions 204, 206, 208 of the dataobject 200 in the hierarchy are populated.

FIG. 4 illustrates different orchestration flows that may be used topopulate the portions 204, 206, 208 of the data object 200, according tosome embodiments. As described briefly above, some embodiments mayorganize the fields in the data object 200 into various portions 204,206, 208 based on orchestration flows that retrieve data for theircorresponding fields. FIG. 4 illustrates various orchestration flowsthat may be used for populating these portions. These orchestrationflows are provided only by way of example, and it will be understoodthat any type of orchestration flow in a containerized or orchestratedenvironment may be used to populate data fields. Furthermore, eventhough a single orchestration flow is illustrated for each portion,other embodiments may use a plurality of orchestration flows for eachportion without limitation.

In this example, and orchestration flow 402 may be used to populate themobile portion 204 of the data object 200. This orchestration flow 402may be event based and may use standard APIs or other interfaces toextract information from databases that are readily available to theorchestration flow. A second orchestration flow 404 may be associatedwith the desktop portion 206. This orchestration flow 404 may includelonger-latency processes, such as interactions with other applications,feeds, channels, or users. An orchestration flow 406 for the serverportion 208 may include operations that require further processingand/or high-latency external systems to populate the correspondingfields 209. In the example of a customer data object, operations mayinclude CRM applications that analyze the customer data for leads,opportunities, engagements, and/or alerts/notifications that have beensent/received for the customer.

In some embodiments, the validity state 302 may be updated when anorchestration flow for a corresponding portion is completed. Forexample, when the orchestration flow 402 for the mobile portion 204 hascompleted execution, it may be determined that the corresponding fields205 in the mobile portion 204 have been fully populated. At this point,the cache 118 may update the validity state 302 to be valid:mobile. Ifmultiple orchestration flows are associated with portions of the dataobject 200, then the validity state 302 may be updated when each of thecorresponding orchestration flows has successfully completed execution.

Some embodiments may use a single field for the validity state 302. Thisfield may be updated with a new value as data is received by the dataobject. As described above, example values may include invalid,valid:mobile, valid:desktop, and so forth. A higher validity state inthe hierarchy may imply validity in lower validity states. In otherembodiments, the validity state 302 may include separate designators foreach possible value. For example, some embodiments may include a fieldfor each possible value for the validity state. These fields may beupdated with values of true or false depending on whether the dataobject 200 is valid for that state. For example, a field in the validitystate 302 designating validity for desktop configurations may be truewhile another field in the validity state 302 designating validity formobile configurations may be false. This allows validity values to beorganized in a nonhierarchical manner that need not rely on differencesin latency.

FIG. 5 illustrates a cache that is partitioned according toconfigurations of the application, according to some embodiments. In theexamples above, the various portions of the data object 200 were storedin the cache 118 without consideration for specific cache locations.FIG. 5 illustrates how a cache 118 may be partitioned or subdivided intoa plurality of partitions corresponding to the plurality ofconfigurations of the application making requests to the cache 118. Inthis example, the cache 118 may be partitioned into a mobile cachepartition 502, a desktop cache partition 504, and/or a server cachepartition 506. These partitions may be virtual. For example, the cache118 may size various partitions based on an amount of data that may bestored in each before it is overwritten. However, the cache 118 maystill be the same physical and cache despite these partitions. Forexample, the same cache router 116 in FIG. 1 may manage and retrieveobjects in each of the partitions 502, 504, 506 in FIG. 5. This may becontrasted with solutions that use separate caches for each applicationconfiguration where data may be duplicated between the separate caches.This example uses a single cache that is logically partitioned to storevarious portions of each single data object.

FIG. 6A illustrates how the partitions 502, 504, 506 in the cache 118can be used to store various portions of the data object, according tosome embodiments. The data object 200 may be the same data object usedin the examples above in relation to FIGS. 3A-3C. Instead of receivingdata and adding the received data to the same data object, the dataobject 200 may be subdivided and stored as different blocks in the cache118 in each of the partitions. For example, as data for fields in themobile portion 204 of the data object 200 a are received, they may bestored as blocks in the mobile partition 502 of the cache 118. In thisexample, no data has yet been received for the fields in the desktopportion 206 or the server portion 208, thus no blocks need to be createdat this point in the desktop portion 504 and/or the server portion 506.These blocks are illustrated in FIG. 6A to show where such data may bestored when received, but this does not necessarily imply that theseblocks need to be allocated in these partitions 504, 506 until data isreceived.

FIG. 6B illustrates how the partitioned cache can fill incrementallywith independent validity states, according to some embodiments. At thisstage, the fields 205 in the mobile portion 204 of the data object 200 ahave been received. The validity state 612 for the data object 200 a inthe mobile partition 502 may be updated to valid or valid:mobile. Notethat distinction between validity for different configurations (e.g.,mobile, desktop, etc.) need not be stored as separate values in thevalidity state 612, but rather can be implied based on the correspondingpartition. For example, when a data object 200 a is valid in the mobilepartition 502, it may be assumed to be valid for mobile configurationsof the application.

As the data in the mobile partition 502 becomes valid, the fields 207 inthe desktop portion 206 are beginning to be populated. Note that theportion of the data object 200 b stored in the desktop partition 504 hasits own validity state 614, which is currently invalid. By havingseparate validity states 612, 614, the portions of the data object 200a, 200 b may have their validity determined collectively and/orindividually. For example, if the data is complete in the desktopportion 206, the corresponding data object 200 b may be marked as valideven if the corresponding mobile portion 204 is not yet valid. Thevalidity of the object 200 may be determined by examining the validitystates 612, 614, 616 for each corresponding block in the various cachepartitions 502, 504, 506. Each block in the various partitions may haveits own object identifier 602, 604, 606 that links together the variousportions of the object 200 in the various partitions 502, 504, 506.Thus, the validity of the overall object 200 may be determined based onthe validity of each individual portion of the object 200 a, 200 b, 200c in the cache 118.

FIG. 6C illustrates further progression through validity states in apartitioned cache, according to some embodiments. In this example, thefields 207 are populated in the desktop portion 206 of the object 200 inthe desktop partition 504, and the validity state 614 of that portion ofthe object 200 b has been updated to valid. The overall validity of thedata object 200 may be determined by examining the validity of eachportion of the object 200. Because both the mobile portion 204 and thedesktop portion 206 are valid, the overall validity state of the object200 may be determined to be valid:desktop. When the fields 209 for theserver portion 208 are completed and the corresponding validity state616 becomes valid, the validity state of the overall object 200 may beupgraded to valid: server.

FIG. 7 illustrates how the size of various partitions in the cache 118may be determined based on requests from configurations of theapplication, according to some embodiments. Generally, objects in themobile partition 502 may be smaller than objects in the desktoppartition 504, and objects in the desktop partition 504 may be smallerthan objects in the server partition 506. However, this need not be thecase. Some information in the server partition 506 may be relativelysmall compared to information in the mobile partition 502. Again, thedesignation for data belonging to the mobile, desktop, and/or serverportions of a data object may be based on the configuration of theapplication that uses the data and/or the latency. Although size isoften correlated to these metrics, it need not be so in every case.However, these relative size differences are used in FIG. 7 as anonlimiting example.

Initially, the cache 118 may be partitioned into sections based on anumber of requests received from corresponding configurations of theapplication. In this example, the partitions 502, 504, 506 may beapproximately equal in size, anticipating an equal number of requestsfor the mobile data, desktop data, and server data. In other examples,the mobile partition 502 may be larger initially than the desktoppartition 504, which in turn may be larger than the server partition504. Considering that each request for server data inherentlyencompasses a request for desktop and mobile data, this type ofpartitioning may be more in line with an expected number of requests forthe data. This may also reduce the number of times data is overwrittenin the cache.

As described above, objects may be broken up into blocks and stored invarious partitions in the cache 118 based on the type of data. Forexample, Object 1 is stored as a combination of object 701 in the mobilecache 502, object 711 in the desktop cache 504, and object 721 in theserver cache 506. Similarly, Object 2 is stored as a combination ofobject 702, object 712, and object 722. However, Object 3 includes onlyobject 703 and object 713. Object 4 includes object 704 and object 714.These two data objects 703, 704 do not have corresponding serverportions stored in the server partition 506. As described above, theseportions of Object 3 and Object 4 may have previously been stored in theserver partition 506 and overwritten by more recent objects.Alternatively, Object 3 and/or Object 4 may have only been requested bydesktop configurations of the application, and thus the server portionsof these data objects may not have been loaded into the server partition506. Similarly, Object 5 and Object 6 only include portions stored inthe mobile partition 502 as objects 705, 706.

After operation of the cache begins, the number of mobile requests frommobile devices 104 may be more than the number of requests from desktopdevices 102 for the reasons discussed above. As these requests arereceived, the equal sizes of the partitions 502, 504, 506 may no longerbe optimally matched to the request traffic. Therefore, some embodimentsmay dynamically resize the cache partitions between various applicationconfiguration types.

FIG. 8 illustrates a re-partitioning of the cache 118 to dynamicallyadjust partition sizes based on request traffic, according to someembodiments. As requests from mobile configurations of the applicationincrease, the cache 118 may be dynamically repartitioned such that thesize of the mobile partition 502 is increased and the size of thedesktop partition 504 is decreased. This may cause objects 713, 714 inthe desktop partition 504 to be overwritten by new objects 707, 708 thatare now placed in the new area of the mobile partition 502. Thus, therepartitioning of the cache 118 need not immediately affect any of theobjects in the cache. Instead, the oldest objects in a repartitionedarea of the cache may instead be marked for deletion when new objectsfrom the mobile application configurations are received.

This repartitioning may take place dynamically as the cache 118operates. If the requests from the mobile configuration of theapplication begin to decrease in frequency, then the cache 118 may berepartitioning to decrease the mobile partition 502 and subsequentlyincrease the desktop partition 504.

FIG. 9 illustrates how objects in the cache 118 may be partiallyoverwritten, according to some embodiments. In this example, a newrequest may be received for Object O from one of the desktopconfigurations of the application 102. To retrieve the desktop data, thecache 118 may place and object 900 in the mobile partition 500 andobject 910 in the desktop partition 504. To do so, the least-recentlyused objects in both of these partitions 502, 504 may be overwritten.Turning back to FIG. 7, object 706 and object 714 may be overwritten.Note that it is not required for any of the objects in the serverpartition 506 to be overwritten at this point, as no server data hasbeen requested for a server configuration of the application. Also notethat some embodiments may continue requesting information for serverconfigurations of the application even if only a desktop configurationof the application requested the data object. This would result inoverriding an object (e.g., Object 2) in the server partition 506.

As objects are overwritten in the cache 118, the validity state ofexisting objects in the cache may be downgraded. For example, if anobject included both a mobile portion and a desktop portion in the cache118, the validity state of the object would be valid:desktop. Later, ifthe portion of the object in the desktop partition 504 is overwritten,but the portion of the object in the mobile partition 502 is notoverwritten, the validity state of the object may be downgraded to bevalid:mobile. Instead of completely invalidating the validity state ofthe object, the validity state of the object can instead be updated suchthat any validity states that still apply can be maintained. This allowsfuture requests from mobile configurations of the application to stillreceive the cached version of the mobile portion of the object, eventhough the desktop portion of the object has been deleted in the cache118.

This cache policy improves upon previous cache policies in a number ofways. In previous caches, the entire object would be written into thecache regardless of the type of configuration of the application makingthe request. This configuration allows only the portions of an objectthat are needed by a particular application configuration to be loaded,thereby maximizing the number of objects that can be represented in thecache simultaneously.

Additionally, as mobile devices become more prevalent and begin todominate request traffic, more of the smaller mobile object portions maybe stored in the mobile partition 502. This may dramatically decreasethe mobile response time from the server as more mobile data objects arerepresented in the cache resulting in fewer cache misses.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart 1000 of a method for using multiplecache validity states to service different application configurations,according to some embodiments. The method may include receiving arequest from an application for a data object (1002). The request may bereceived from an application that is configured to operate in aplurality of configurations, and the application may be currentlyoperating a first configuration in that plurality of configurations. Forexample, the configuration of the application may be based on a devicetype on which the application operates, such as a mobile device, aserver device, a desktop device, and so forth. The request may bereceived by a middle-tier server that acts as a Web server and/or anapplication server. The server may include a data cache that stores dataobjects responsive to requests from client devices. The server anddevice communications may take place as described above, such as inrelation to FIG. 1.

The method may additionally include requesting the data object from adata source to service the request (1004). A determination may be madethat the data object is not in the cache at the server and shouldinstead be requested from a data source (e.g., a cache miss). Therequest may go through one or more orchestration flows as illustratedabove in FIG. 4. The data source may include a plurality of differentdata sources, and may include processes, databases, applications,external systems, web services, APIs, and so forth as described above.

The method may additionally include receiving a portion of the dataobject from the data source (1006). The data object may be divided intoa plurality of data portions as described above in FIGS. 3A-3B. Thesedata portions may correspond to the different applicationconfigurations. These data portions may also correspond to a pluralityof validity states for the data object in the cache. These data portionsmay also be grouped according to relative latency, size, or any othermetric. In some cases, the portion of the data object need not representthe entire data object, such that additional fields in the data objectstill remain to be received from the data source as a remaining portionof the data object. The portion of the data object may be receivedincrementally as individual fields are populated from orchestrationflows or various sources within the data source.

The method may further include storing the portion of the data object inthe cache (1008). In some embodiments, the cache need not be dividedinto different partitions, and the portion of the data object can bestored as one object in the data cache. In other embodiments, the cachemay be partitioned into a plurality of partitions where correspondingportions of the data object are stored. The data object may be dividedup according to the various portions and stored in different petitionsof the cache as illustrated above in FIGS. 5-9. These cache partitionsmay be resized dynamically to accommodate request traffic from differentconfigurations of the application. For example, cache partitions may besized or resized based on the number of requests received from clientdevices operating the application each of the configurations.

The method may also include determining a validity state for the portionof the data object stored in the cache (1010). This determination may bemade dynamically at any point as the portion of the data object is beingreceived from the data source. In some embodiments, this determinationmay be triggered when an orchestration flow is completed and a portionof the data object has been completely populated. The validity state maybe assigned from a plurality of validity states, each of whichcorresponds to one of the plurality of configurations of theapplication. For example, validity states may be defined by values suchas invalid, valid:mobile, valid:desktop, valid:server, and so forth.Validity states may be assigned to indicate that enough of the dataobject has been populated in the cache to service that correspondingconfiguration of the application as described above in FIGS. 3-9.

The method may additionally include sending the portion of the dataobject to the application when the validity state of the portion of thedata object in the cache corresponds to the configuration of theapplication (1012). For example, when the validity state isvalid:mobile, the cache may send the portion of the data object to amobile configuration of the application. In some embodiments, the cachemay continue to populate additional portions of the data object aftersending the response to the client device. In other embodiments, thecache may stop populating the cache with portions of the data objectthat may correspond to higher validity states, such as valid:desktop,and so forth.

It should be appreciated that the specific steps illustrated in FIG. 10provide particular methods of using multiple cache validity states toservice different application configurations according to variousembodiments. Other sequences of steps may also be performed according toalternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of thepresent invention may perform the steps outlined above in a differentorder. Moreover, the individual steps illustrated in FIG. 10 may includemultiple sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences asappropriate to the individual step. Furthermore, additional steps may beadded or removed depending on the particular applications. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize many variations,modifications, and alternatives.

Each of the methods described herein may be implemented by a computersystem.

Each step of these methods may be executed automatically by the computersystem, and/or may be provided with inputs/outputs involving a user. Forexample, a user may provide inputs for each step in a method, and eachof these inputs may be in response to a specific output requesting suchan input, wherein the output is generated by the computer system. Eachinput may be received in response to a corresponding requesting output.Furthermore, inputs may be received from a user, from another computersystem as a data stream, retrieved from a memory location, retrievedover a network, requested from a web service, and/or the like. Likewise,outputs may be provided to a user, to another computer system as a datastream, saved in a memory location, sent over a network, provided to aweb service, and/or the like. In short, each step of the methodsdescribed herein may be performed by a computer system, and may involveany number of inputs, outputs, and/or requests to and from the computersystem which may or may not involve a user. Those steps not involving auser may be said to be performed automatically by the computer systemwithout human intervention. Therefore, it will be understood in light ofthis disclosure, that each step of each method described herein may bealtered to include an input and output to and from a user, or may bedone automatically by a computer system without human intervention whereany determinations are made by a processor. Furthermore, someembodiments of each of the methods described herein may be implementedas a set of instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory storagemedium to form a tangible software product.

FIG. 11 depicts a simplified diagram of a distributed system 1100 forimplementing one of the embodiments. In the illustrated embodiment,distributed system 1100 includes one or more client computing devices1102, 1104, 1106, and 1108, which are configured to execute and operatea client application such as a web browser, proprietary client (e.g.,Oracle Forms), or the like over one or more network(s) 1110. Server 1112may be communicatively coupled with remote client computing devices1102, 1104, 1106, and 1108 via network 1110.

In various embodiments, server 1112 may be adapted to run one or moreservices or software applications provided by one or more of thecomponents of the system. In some embodiments, these services may beoffered as web-based or cloud services or under a Software as a Service(SaaS) model to the users of client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106,and/or 1108. Users operating client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106,and/or 1108 may in turn utilize one or more client applications tointeract with server 1112 to utilize the services provided by thesecomponents.

In the configuration depicted in the figure, the software components1118, 1120 and 1122 of system 1100 are shown as being implemented onserver 1112. In other embodiments, one or more of the components ofsystem 1100 and/or the services provided by these components may also beimplemented by one or more of the client computing devices 1102, 1104,1106, and/or 1108. Users operating the client computing devices may thenutilize one or more client applications to use the services provided bythese components. These components may be implemented in hardware,firmware, software, or combinations thereof. It should be appreciatedthat various different system configurations are possible, which may bedifferent from distributed system 1100. The embodiment shown in thefigure is thus one example of a distributed system for implementing anembodiment system and is not intended to be limiting.

Client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106, and/or 1108 may be portablehandheld devices (e.g., an iPhone®, cellular telephone, an iPad®,computing tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA)) or wearabledevices (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounted display), running softwaresuch as Microsoft Windows Mobile®, and/or a variety of mobile operatingsystems such as iOS, Windows Phone, Android, BlackBerry 10, Palm OS, andthe like, and being Internet, e-mail, short message service (SMS),Blackberry®, or other communication protocol enabled. The clientcomputing devices can be general purpose personal computers including,by way of example, personal computers and/or laptop computers runningvarious versions of Microsoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and/or Linuxoperating systems. The client computing devices can be workstationcomputers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX® orUNIX-like operating systems, including without limitation the variety ofGNU/Linux operating systems, such as for example, Google Chrome OS.Alternatively, or in addition, client computing devices 1102, 1104,1106, and 1108 may be any other electronic device, such as a thin-clientcomputer, an Internet-enabled gaming system (e.g., a Microsoft Xboxgaming console with or without a Kinect® gesture input device), and/or apersonal messaging device, capable of communicating over network(s)1110.

Although exemplary distributed system 1100 is shown with four clientcomputing devices, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices, such as devices with sensors, etc., mayinteract with server 1112.

Network(s) 1110 in distributed system 1100 may be any type of networkfamiliar to those skilled in the art that can support datacommunications using any of a variety of commercially-availableprotocols, including without limitation TCP/IP (transmission controlprotocol/Internet protocol), SNA (systems network architecture), IPX(Internet packet exchange), AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way ofexample, network(s) 1110 can be a local area network (LAN), such as onebased on Ethernet, Token-Ring and/or the like. Network(s) 1110 can be awide-area network and the Internet. It can include a virtual network,including without limitation a virtual private network (VPN), anintranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), aninfra-red network, a wireless network (e.g., a network operating underany of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) 802.11 suiteof protocols, Bluetooth®, and/or any other wireless protocol); and/orany combination of these and/or other networks.

Server 1112 may be composed of one or more general purpose computers,specialized server computers (including, by way of example, PC (personalcomputer) servers, UNIX® servers, mid-range servers, mainframecomputers, rack-mounted servers, etc.), server farms, server clusters,or any other appropriate arrangement and/or combination. In variousembodiments, server 1112 may be adapted to run one or more services orsoftware applications described in the foregoing disclosure. Forexample, server 1112 may correspond to a server for performingprocessing described above according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

Server 1112 may run an operating system including any of those discussedabove, as well as any commercially available server operating system.Server 1112 may also run any of a variety of additional serverapplications and/or midtier applications, including HTTP (hypertexttransport protocol) servers, FTP (file transfer protocol) servers, CGI(common gateway interface) servers, JAVA® servers, database servers, andthe like. Exemplary database servers include without limitation thosecommercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, IBM(International Business Machines), and the like.

In some implementations, server 1112 may include one or moreapplications to analyze and consolidate data feeds and/or event updatesreceived from users of client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106, and1108. As an example, data feeds and/or event updates may include, butare not limited to, Twitter® feeds, Facebook® updates or real-timeupdates received from one or more third party information sources andcontinuous data streams, which may include real-time events related tosensor data applications, financial tickers, network performancemeasuring tools (e.g., network monitoring and traffic managementapplications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile trafficmonitoring, and the like. Server 1112 may also include one or moreapplications to display the data feeds and/or real-time events via oneor more display devices of client computing devices 1102, 1104, 1106,and 1108.

Distributed system 1100 may also include one or more databases 1114 and1116. Databases 1114 and 1116 may reside in a variety of locations. Byway of example, one or more of databases 1114 and 1116 may reside on anon-transitory storage medium local to (and/or resident in) server 1112.Alternatively, databases 1114 and 1116 may be remote from server 1112and in communication with server 1112 via a network-based or dedicatedconnection. In one set of embodiments, databases 1114 and 1116 mayreside in a storage-area network (SAN). Similarly, any necessary filesfor performing the functions attributed to server 1112 may be storedlocally on server 1112 and/or remotely, as appropriate. In one set ofembodiments, databases 1114 and 1116 may include relational databases,such as databases provided by Oracle, that are adapted to store, update,and retrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.

FIG. 12 is a simplified block diagram of one or more components of asystem environment 1200 by which services provided by one or morecomponents of an embodiment system may be offered as cloud services, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In theillustrated embodiment, system environment 1200 includes one or moreclient computing devices 1204, 1206, and 1208 that may be used by usersto interact with a cloud infrastructure system 1202 that provides cloudservices. The client computing devices may be configured to operate aclient application such as a web browser, a proprietary clientapplication (e.g., Oracle Forms), or some other application, which maybe used by a user of the client computing device to interact with cloudinfrastructure system 1202 to use services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1202.

It should be appreciated that cloud infrastructure system 1202 depictedin the figure may have other components than those depicted. Further,the embodiment shown in the figure is only one example of a cloudinfrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of theinvention. In some other embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1202may have more or fewer components than shown in the figure, may combinetwo or more components, or may have a different configuration orarrangement of components.

Client computing devices 1204, 1206, and 1208 may be devices similar tothose described above for 1102, 1104, 1106, and 1108.

Although exemplary system environment 1200 is shown with three clientcomputing devices, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices such as devices with sensors, etc. may interactwith cloud infrastructure system 1202.

Network(s) 1210 may facilitate communications and exchange of databetween clients 1204, 1206, and 1208 and cloud infrastructure system1202. Each network may be any type of network familiar to those skilledin the art that can support data communications using any of a varietyof commercially-available protocols, including those described above fornetwork(s) 1110.

Cloud infrastructure system 1202 may comprise one or more computersand/or servers that may include those described above for server 1112.

In certain embodiments, services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem may include a host of services that are made available to usersof the cloud infrastructure system on demand, such as online datastorage and backup solutions, Web-based e-mail services, hosted officesuites and document collaboration services, database processing, managedtechnical support services, and the like. Services provided by the cloudinfrastructure system can dynamically scale to meet the needs of itsusers. A specific instantiation of a service provided by cloudinfrastructure system is referred to herein as a “service instance.” Ingeneral, any service made available to a user via a communicationnetwork, such as the Internet, from a cloud service provider's system isreferred to as a “cloud service.” Typically, in a public cloudenvironment, servers and systems that make up the cloud serviceprovider's system are different from the customer's own on-premisesservers and systems. For example, a cloud service provider's system mayhost an application, and a user may, via a communication network such asthe Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

In some examples, a service in a computer network cloud infrastructuremay include protected computer network access to storage, a hosteddatabase, a hosted web server, a software application, or other serviceprovided by a cloud vendor to a user, or as otherwise known in the art.For example, a service can include password-protected access to remotestorage on the cloud through the Internet. As another example, a servicecan include a web service-based hosted relational database and ascript-language middleware engine for private use by a networkeddeveloper. As another example, a service can include access to an emailsoftware application hosted on a cloud vendor's web site.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1202 may include asuite of applications, middleware, and database service offerings thatare delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based,elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. Anexample of such a cloud infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloudprovided by the present assignee.

In various embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1202 may be adaptedto automatically provision, manage and track a customer's subscriptionto services offered by cloud infrastructure system 1202. Cloudinfrastructure system 1202 may provide the cloud services via differentdeployment models. For example, services may be provided under a publiccloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 1202 is owned by anorganization selling cloud services (e.g., owned by Oracle) and theservices are made available to the general public or different industryenterprises. As another example, services may be provided under aprivate cloud model in which cloud infrastructure system 1202 isoperated solely for a single organization and may provide services forone or more entities within the organization. The cloud services mayalso be provided under a community cloud model in which cloudinfrastructure system 1202 and the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1202 are shared by several organizations in arelated community. The cloud services may also be provided under ahybrid cloud model, which is a combination of two or more differentmodels.

In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1202 may include one or more services provided under Software asa Service (SaaS) category, Platform as a Service (PaaS) category,Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other categories ofservices including hybrid services. A customer, via a subscriptionorder, may order one or more services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1202. Cloud infrastructure system 1202 then performs processingto provide the services in the customer's subscription order.

In some embodiments, the services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1202 may include, without limitation, application services,platform services and infrastructure services. In some examples,application services may be provided by the cloud infrastructure systemvia a SaaS platform. The SaaS platform may be configured to providecloud services that fall under the SaaS category. For example, the SaaSplatform may provide capabilities to build and deliver a suite ofon-demand applications on an integrated development and deploymentplatform. The SaaS platform may manage and control the underlyingsoftware and infrastructure for providing the SaaS services. Byutilizing the services provided by the SaaS platform, customers canutilize applications executing on the cloud infrastructure system.Customers can acquire the application services without the need forcustomers to purchase separate licenses and support. Various differentSaaS services may be provided. Examples include, without limitation,services that provide solutions for sales performance management,enterprise integration, and business flexibility for largeorganizations.

In some embodiments, platform services may be provided by the cloudinfrastructure system via a PaaS platform. The PaaS platform may beconfigured to provide cloud services that fall under the PaaS category.Examples of platform services may include without limitation servicesthat enable organizations (such as Oracle) to consolidate existingapplications on a shared, common architecture, as well as the ability tobuild new applications that leverage the shared services provided by theplatform. The PaaS platform may manage and control the underlyingsoftware and infrastructure for providing the PaaS services. Customerscan acquire the PaaS services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem without the need for customers to purchase separate licenses andsupport. Examples of platform services include, without limitation,Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBCS),and others.

By utilizing the services provided by the PaaS platform, customers canemploy programming languages and tools supported by the cloudinfrastructure system and also control the deployed services. In someembodiments, platform services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem may include database cloud services, middleware cloud services(e.g., Oracle Fusion Middleware services), and Java cloud services. Inone embodiment, database cloud services may support shared servicedeployment models that enable organizations to pool database resourcesand offer customers a Database as a Service in the form of a databasecloud. Middleware cloud services may provide a platform for customers todevelop and deploy various business applications, and Java cloudservices may provide a platform for customers to deploy Javaapplications, in the cloud infrastructure system.

Various different infrastructure services may be provided by an IaaSplatform in the cloud infrastructure system. The infrastructure servicesfacilitate the management and control of the underlying computingresources, such as storage, networks, and other fundamental computingresources for customers utilizing services provided by the SaaS platformand the PaaS platform.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1202 may alsoinclude infrastructure resources 1230 for providing the resources usedto provide various services to customers of the cloud infrastructuresystem. In one embodiment, infrastructure resources 1230 may includepre-integrated and optimized combinations of hardware, such as servers,storage, and networking resources to execute the services provided bythe PaaS platform and the SaaS platform.

In some embodiments, resources in cloud infrastructure system 1202 maybe shared by multiple users and dynamically re-allocated per demand.Additionally, resources may be allocated to users in different timezones. For example, cloud infrastructure system 1230 may enable a firstset of users in a first time zone to utilize resources of the cloudinfrastructure system for a specified number of hours and then enablethe re-allocation of the same resources to another set of users locatedin a different time zone, thereby maximizing the utilization ofresources.

In certain embodiments, a number of internal shared services 1232 may beprovided that are shared by different components or modules of cloudinfrastructure system 1202 and by the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1202. These internal shared services may include,without limitation, a security and identity service, an integrationservice, an enterprise repository service, an enterprise managerservice, a virus scanning and white list service, a high availability,backup and recovery service, service for enabling cloud support, anemail service, a notification service, a file transfer service, and thelike.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1202 may providecomprehensive management of cloud services (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, and IaaSservices) in the cloud infrastructure system. In one embodiment, cloudmanagement functionality may include capabilities for provisioning,managing and tracking a customer's subscription received by cloudinfrastructure system 1202, and the like.

In one embodiment, as depicted in the figure, cloud managementfunctionality may be provided by one or more modules, such as an ordermanagement module 1220, an order orchestration module 1222, an orderprovisioning module 1224, an order management and monitoring module1226, and an identity management module 1228. These modules may includeor be provided using one or more computers and/or servers, which may begeneral purpose computers, specialized server computers, server farms,server clusters, or any other appropriate arrangement and/orcombination.

In exemplary operation 1234, a customer using a client device, such asclient device 1204, 1206 or 1208, may interact with cloud infrastructuresystem 1202 by requesting one or more services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1202 and placing an order for a subscription forone or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 1202. Incertain embodiments, the customer may access a cloud User Interface(UI), cloud UI 1212, cloud UI 1214 and/or cloud UI 1216 and place asubscription order via these UIs. The order information received bycloud infrastructure system 1202 in response to the customer placing anorder may include information identifying the customer and one or moreservices offered by the cloud infrastructure system 1202 that thecustomer intends to subscribe to.

After an order has been placed by the customer, the order information isreceived via the cloud UIs, 1212, 1214 and/or 1216.

At operation 1236, the order is stored in order database 1218. Orderdatabase 1218 can be one of several databases operated by cloudinfrastructure system 1218 and operated in conjunction with other systemelements.

At operation 1238, the order information is forwarded to an ordermanagement module 1220. In some instances, order management module 1220may be configured to perform billing and accounting functions related tothe order, such as verifying the order, and upon verification, bookingthe order.

At operation 1240, information regarding the order is communicated to anorder orchestration module 1222. Order orchestration module 1222 mayutilize the order information to orchestrate the provisioning ofservices and resources for the order placed by the customer. In someinstances, order orchestration module 1222 may orchestrate theprovisioning of resources to support the subscribed services using theservices of order provisioning module 1224.

In certain embodiments, order orchestration module 1222 enables themanagement of business processes associated with each order and appliesbusiness logic to determine whether an order should proceed toprovisioning. At operation 1242, upon receiving an order for a newsubscription, order orchestration module 1222 sends a request to orderprovisioning module 1224 to allocate resources and configure thoseresources needed to fulfill the subscription order. Order provisioningmodule 1224 enables the allocation of resources for the services orderedby the customer. Order provisioning module 1224 provides a level ofabstraction between the cloud services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 1200 and the physical implementation layer that is used toprovision the resources for providing the requested services. Orderorchestration module 1222 may thus be isolated from implementationdetails, such as whether or not services and resources are actuallyprovisioned on the fly or pre-provisioned and only allocated/assignedupon request.

At operation 1244, once the services and resources are provisioned, anotification of the provided service may be sent to customers on clientdevices 1204, 1206 and/or 1208 by order provisioning module 1224 ofcloud infrastructure system 1202.

At operation 1246, the customer's subscription order may be managed andtracked by an order management and monitoring module 1226. In someinstances, order management and monitoring module 1226 may be configuredto collect usage statistics for the services in the subscription order,such as the amount of storage used, the amount data transferred, thenumber of users, and the amount of system up time and system down time.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 1200 may include anidentity management module 1228. Identity management module 1228 may beconfigured to provide identity services, such as access management andauthorization services in cloud infrastructure system 1200. In someembodiments, identity management module 1228 may control informationabout customers who wish to utilize the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 1202. Such information can include informationthat authenticates the identities of such customers and information thatdescribes which actions those customers are authorized to performrelative to various system resources (e.g., files, directories,applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.) Identitymanagement module 1228 may also include the management of descriptiveinformation about each customer and about how and by whom thatdescriptive information can be accessed and modified.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary computer system 1300, in which variousembodiments of the present invention may be implemented. The system 1300may be used to implement any of the computer systems described above. Asshown in the figure, computer system 1300 includes a processing unit1304 that communicates with a number of peripheral subsystems via a bussubsystem 1302. These peripheral subsystems may include a processingacceleration unit 1306, an I/O subsystem 1308, a storage subsystem 1318and a communications subsystem 1324. Storage subsystem 1318 includestangible computer-readable storage media 1322 and a system memory 1310.

Bus subsystem 1302 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 1300 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 1302 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple buses. Bus subsystem 1302 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Forexample, such architectures may include an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, EnhancedISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) localbus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which can beimplemented as a Mezzanine bus manufactured to the IEEE P1386.1standard.

Processing unit 1304, which can be implemented as one or more integratedcircuits (e.g., a conventional microprocessor or microcontroller),controls the operation of computer system 1300. One or more processorsmay be included in processing unit 1304. These processors may includesingle core or multicore processors. In certain embodiments, processingunit 1304 may be implemented as one or more independent processing units1332 and/or 1334 with single or multicore processors included in eachprocessing unit. In other embodiments, processing unit 1304 may also beimplemented as a quad-core processing unit formed by integrating twodual-core processors into a single chip.

In various embodiments, processing unit 1304 can execute a variety ofprograms in response to program code and can maintain multipleconcurrently executing programs or processes. At any given time, some orall of the program code to be executed can be resident in processor(s)1304 and/or in storage subsystem 1318. Through suitable programming,processor(s) 1304 can provide various functionalities described above.Computer system 1300 may additionally include a processing accelerationunit 1306, which can include a digital signal processor (DSP), aspecial-purpose processor, and/or the like.

I/O subsystem 1308 may include user interface input devices and userinterface output devices. User interface input devices may include akeyboard, pointing devices such as a mouse or trackball, a touchpad ortouch screen incorporated into a display, a scroll wheel, a click wheel,a dial, a button, a switch, a keypad, audio input devices with voicecommand recognition systems, microphones, and other types of inputdevices. User interface input devices may include, for example, motionsensing and/or gesture recognition devices such as the Microsoft Kinect®motion sensor that enables users to control and interact with an inputdevice, such as the Microsoft Xbox® 360 game controller, through anatural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. Userinterface input devices may also include eye gesture recognition devicessuch as the Google Glass® blink detector that detects eye activity(e.g., ‘blinking’ while taking pictures and/or making a menu selection)from users and transforms the eye gestures as input into an input device(e.g., Google Glass®). Additionally, user interface input devices mayinclude voice recognition sensing devices that enable users to interactwith voice recognition systems (e.g., Siri® navigator), through voicecommands.

User interface input devices may also include, without limitation, threedimensional (3D) mice, joysticks or pointing sticks, gamepads andgraphic tablets, and audio/visual devices such as speakers, digitalcameras, digital camcorders, portable media players, webcams, imagescanners, fingerprint scanners, barcode reader 3D scanners, 3D printers,laser rangefinders, and eye gaze tracking devices. Additionally, userinterface input devices may include, for example, medical imaging inputdevices such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging,position emission tomography, medical ultrasonography devices. Userinterface input devices may also include, for example, audio inputdevices such as MIDI keyboards, digital musical instruments and thelike.

User interface output devices may include a display subsystem, indicatorlights, or non-visual displays such as audio output devices, etc. Thedisplay subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), a flat-panel device,such as that using a liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma display, aprojection device, a touch screen, and the like. In general, use of theterm “output device” is intended to include all possible types ofdevices and mechanisms for outputting information from computer system1300 to a user or other computer. For example, user interface outputdevices may include, without limitation, a variety of display devicesthat visually convey text, graphics and audio/video information such asmonitors, printers, speakers, headphones, automotive navigation systems,plotters, voice output devices, and modems.

Computer system 1300 may comprise a storage subsystem 1318 thatcomprises software elements, shown as being currently located within asystem memory 1310. System memory 1310 may store program instructionsthat are loadable and executable on processing unit 1304, as well asdata generated during the execution of these programs.

Depending on the configuration and type of computer system 1300, systemmemory 1310 may be volatile (such as random access memory (RAM)) and/ornon-volatile (such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, etc.) TheRAM typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediatelyaccessible to and/or presently being operated and executed by processingunit 1304. In some implementations, system memory 1310 may includemultiple different types of memory, such as static random access memory(SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In some implementations,a basic input/output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines thathelp to transfer information between elements within computer system1300, such as during start-up, may typically be stored in the ROM. Byway of example, and not limitation, system memory 1310 also illustratesapplication programs 1312, which may include client applications, Webbrowsers, midtier applications, relational database management systems(RDBMS), etc., program data 1314, and an operating system 1316. By wayof example, operating system 1316 may include various versions ofMicrosoft Windows®, Apple Macintosh®, and/or Linux operating systems, avariety of commercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-like operating systems(including without limitation the variety of GNU/Linux operatingsystems, the Google Chrome® OS, and the like) and/or mobile operatingsystems such as iOS, Windows® Phone, Android® OS, BlackBerry® 10 OS, andPalm® OS operating systems.

Storage subsystem 1318 may also provide a tangible computer-readablestorage medium for storing the basic programming and data constructsthat provide the functionality of some embodiments. Software (programs,code modules, instructions) that when executed by a processor providethe functionality described above may be stored in storage subsystem1318. These software modules or instructions may be executed byprocessing unit 1304. Storage subsystem 1318 may also provide arepository for storing data used in accordance with the presentinvention.

Storage subsystem 1300 may also include a computer-readable storagemedia reader 1320 that can further be connected to computer-readablestorage media 1322. Together and, optionally, in combination with systemmemory 1310, computer-readable storage media 1322 may comprehensivelyrepresent remote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plusstorage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containing,storing, transmitting, and retrieving computer-readable information.

Computer-readable storage media 1322 containing code, or portions ofcode, can also include any appropriate media known or used in the art,including storage media and communication media, such as but not limitedto, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information. This can include tangible computer-readable storagemedia such as RAM, ROM, electronically erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disk (DVD), or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or other tangible computer readable media. This can also includenontangible computer-readable media, such as data signals, datatransmissions, or any other medium which can be used to transmit thedesired information and which can be accessed by computing system 1300.

By way of example, computer-readable storage media 1322 may include ahard disk drive that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatilemagnetic media, a magnetic disk drive that reads from or writes to aremovable, nonvolatile magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive thatreads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk such as aCD ROM, DVD, and Blu-Ray® disk, or other optical media.Computer-readable storage media 1322 may include, but is not limited to,Zip® drives, flash memory cards, universal serial bus (USB) flashdrives, secure digital (SD) cards, DVD disks, digital video tape, andthe like. Computer-readable storage media 1322 may also include,solid-state drives (SSD) based on non-volatile memory such asflash-memory based SSDs, enterprise flash drives, solid state ROM, andthe like, SSDs based on volatile memory such as solid state RAM, dynamicRAM, static RAM, DRAM-based SSDs, magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) SSDs, andhybrid SSDs that use a combination of DRAM and flash memory based SSDs.The disk drives and their associated computer-readable media may providenon-volatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, and other data for computer system 1300.

Communications subsystem 1324 provides an interface to other computersystems and networks. Communications subsystem 1324 serves as aninterface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systemsfrom computer system 1300. For example, communications subsystem 1324may enable computer system 1300 to connect to one or more devices viathe Internet. In some embodiments communications subsystem 1324 caninclude radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessingwireless voice and/or data networks (e.g., using cellular telephonetechnology, advanced data network technology, such as 3G, 4G or EDGE(enhanced data rates for global evolution), WiFi (IEEE 802.11 familystandards, or other mobile communication technologies, or anycombination thereof), global positioning system (GPS) receivercomponents, and/or other components. In some embodiments communicationssubsystem 1324 can provide wired network connectivity (e.g., Ethernet)in addition to or instead of a wireless interface.

In some embodiments, communications subsystem 1324 may also receiveinput communication in the form of structured and/or unstructured datafeeds 1326, event streams 1328, event updates 1330, and the like onbehalf of one or more users who may use computer system 1300.

By way of example, communications subsystem 1324 may be configured toreceive data feeds 1326 in real-time from users of social networksand/or other communication services such as Twitter® feeds, Facebook®updates, web feeds such as Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, and/orreal-time updates from one or more third party information sources.

Additionally, communications subsystem 1324 may also be configured toreceive data in the form of continuous data streams, which may includeevent streams 1328 of real-time events and/or event updates 1330, thatmay be continuous or unbounded in nature with no explicit end. Examplesof applications that generate continuous data may include, for example,sensor data applications, financial tickers, network performancemeasuring tools (e.g. network monitoring and traffic managementapplications), clickstream analysis tools, automobile trafficmonitoring, and the like.

Communications subsystem 1324 may also be configured to output thestructured and/or unstructured data feeds 1326, event streams 1328,event updates 1330, and the like to one or more databases that may be incommunication with one or more streaming data source computers coupledto computer system 1300.

Computer system 1300 can be one of various types, including a handheldportable device (e.g., an iPhone® cellular phone, an iPad® computingtablet, a PDA), a wearable device (e.g., a Google Glass® head mounteddisplay), a PC, a workstation, a mainframe, a kiosk, a server rack, orany other data processing system.

Due to the ever-changing nature of computers and networks, thedescription of computer system 1300 depicted in the figure is intendedonly as a specific example. Many other configurations having more orfewer components than the system depicted in the figure are possible.For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particularelements might be implemented in hardware, firmware, software (includingapplets), or a combination. Further, connection to other computingdevices, such as network input/output devices, may be employed. Based onthe disclosure and teachings provided herein, a person of ordinary skillin the art will appreciate other ways and/or methods to implement thevarious embodiments.

In the foregoing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details were set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of various embodiments of the present invention. It willbe apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of thepresent invention may be practiced without some of these specificdetails. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shownin block diagram form.

The foregoing description provides exemplary embodiments only, and isnot intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of thedisclosure. Rather, the foregoing description of the exemplaryembodiments will provide those skilled in the art with an enablingdescription for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It should beunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Specific details are given in the foregoing description to provide athorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will beunderstood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments maybe practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits,systems, networks, processes, and other components may have been shownas components in block diagram form in order not to obscure theembodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-knowncircuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may havebeen shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring theembodiments.

Also, it is noted that individual embodiments may have beeen describedas a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a dataflow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although aflowchart may have described the operations as a sequential process,many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. Inaddition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process isterminated when its operations are completed, but could have additionalsteps not included in a figure. A process may correspond to a method, afunction, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a processcorresponds to a function, its termination can correspond to a return ofthe function to the calling function or the main function.

The term “computer-readable medium” includes, but is not limited toportable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wirelesschannels and various other mediums capable of storing, containing, orcarrying instruction(s) and/or data. A code segment ormachine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, asubprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc., may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or anycombination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middlewareor microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessarytasks may be stored in a machine readable medium. A processor(s) mayperform the necessary tasks.

In the foregoing specification, aspects of the invention are describedwith reference to specific embodiments thereof, but those skilled in theart will recognize that the invention is not limited thereto. Variousfeatures and aspects of the above-described invention may be usedindividually or jointly. Further, embodiments can be utilized in anynumber of environments and applications beyond those described hereinwithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of thespecification. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Additionally, for the purposes of illustration, methods were describedin a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternateembodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than thatdescribed. It should also be appreciated that the methods describedabove may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied insequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to causea machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor orlogic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods.These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or moremachine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of opticaldisks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic oroptical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediumssuitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methodsmay be performed by a combination of hardware and software.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a request from an application for a data object, wherein: the application is configured to operate in a plurality of configurations; and the application is operating in a first configuration in the plurality of configurations when the request is sent; requesting the data object from a data source to service the request; receiving a portion of the data object from the data source; storing the portion of the data object in a cache; determining a validity state for the portion of the data object stored in the cache, wherein: the validity state is assigned from a plurality of validity states; and the plurality of validity states correspond to the plurality of configurations of the application; and sending the portion of the data object to the application when the validity state of the portion of the data object in the cache corresponds to the first configuration.
 2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the cache is stored on a middle-tier server.
 3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the middle-tier server comprises an application server that is distinct from a client device on which the application operates in the first configuration and distinct from the data source from which the portion of the data object is received.
 4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of configurations correspond to client device types on which the application is configured to operate.
 5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the first configuration in the plurality of configurations corresponds to a mobile client device type.
 6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the first configuration in the plurality of configurations corresponds to a desktop client device type.
 7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the first configuration in the plurality of configurations corresponds to a analytics or server client device type.
 8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data object comprises a plurality of data portions corresponding to the plurality of validity states.
 9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, determining the validity state for the at least of portion of the data object stored in the cache comprises: determining whether the portion of the data object includes a data portion in the plurality of data portions corresponding to the validity state.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of validity states comprises a hierarchy such that validity in a higher validity state implies validity in lower validity states.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein: the plurality of validity states comprises a mobile device validity state; the plurality of validity states comprises a desktop device validity state; the desktop device validity state is higher than the mobile device validity state in the hierarchy; and validity in the desktop device validity state implies validity in the mobile device validity state.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a remaining portion of the data object from the data source after the validity state of the portion of the data object in the cache corresponds to the first configuration; and causing the cache to not store the remaining portion of the data object from the data source.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a second request from a second application for the data object, wherein the second application is operating in the first configuration; retrieving the portion of the data object from the cache without requesting the remaining portion of the data object from the data source; and sending the portion of the data object to the second application.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving a second request from a second application for the data object, wherein the second application is operating in a second configuration in the plurality of configurations; requesting the data object from the data source to service the second request; receiving a second portion of the data object from the data source; storing the second portion of the data object in the cache; determining a validity state for the portion of the data object and the second portion of the data object stored in the cache; and sending the portion of the data object and the second portion of the data object to the application when the validity state of the portion of the data object and the second portion of the data object in the cache corresponds to the second configuration of the application.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of configurations corresponds to separate orchestration streams.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein determining the validity state for the portion of the data object stored in the cache comprises: determining when the portion of the data object is received from one of the separate orchestration streams corresponding to the first configuration.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: partitioning the cache into a plurality of partitions corresponding to the plurality of configurations.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise: sizing or resizing the plurality of partitions based on a number requests received from client devices operating the application in each of the plurality of configurations.
 19. A method of using multiple cache validity states to service different application configurations, the method comprising: receiving a request from an application for a data object, wherein: the application is configured to operate in a plurality of configurations; and the application is operating in a first configuration in the plurality of configurations when the request is sent; requesting the data object from a data source to service the request; receiving a portion of the data object from the data source; storing the portion of the data object in a cache; determining a validity state for the portion of the data object stored in the cache, wherein: the validity state is assigned from a plurality of validity states; and the plurality of validity states correspond to the plurality of configurations of the application; and sending the portion of the data object to the application when the validity state of the portion of the data object in the cache corresponds to the first configuration.
 20. A system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memory devices comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a request from an application for a data object, wherein: the application is configured to operate in a plurality of configurations; and the application is operating in a first configuration in the plurality of configurations when the request is sent; requesting the data object from a data source to service the request; receiving a portion of the data object from the data source; storing the portion of the data object in a cache; determining a validity state for the portion of the data object stored in the cache, wherein: the validity state is assigned from a plurality of validity states; and the plurality of validity states correspond to the plurality of configurations of the application; and sending the portion of the data object to the application when the validity state of the portion of the data object in the cache corresponds to the first configuration. 